


We Hold Each Other So Tight (they couldn't break us if they tried)

by LittleMissAgrafina



Series: Comfortember 2020 [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Because there aint no toxic masculinity accepted here, Crying, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dead May Parker (Spider-Man), F/M, Gen, Harley Keener is a Good Bro, Irondad, It's barley there i think, Men Crying, Michelle Jones Is a Good Bro, Minor Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Only soft people who feel things like actual humans are meant to, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Platonic Cuddling, Poor Peter Parker, Separation Anxiety, Sleepy Cuddles, Tony Stark is a Good Dad, im sorry, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:47:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27404548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissAgrafina/pseuds/LittleMissAgrafina
Summary: Tony and Peter spent as much time as they could together, squeezing in lab days, movie nights, and any random thing they could think to do together. They were never apart when they had the chance to be in one another's company.Those chances disappeared completely when Tony was called in for a mission with Steve, Nat, and Sam. The only four available at the time to be called to mission.So they left, Tony promising Peter that he would be home in a few days, just in time for the younger hero's academic decathlon competition.The day for the team of four to arrive back home came and went with no sign of the quinjet that they left on.Tony wasn't home and Peter had no idea where he was.Or3 times someone else cuddled Peter and 1 time Tony could.---Comfortember Day 5. Cuddle + Day 7. Blanket Fort
Relationships: Harley Keener & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Comfortember 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995808
Comments: 19
Kudos: 197
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	We Hold Each Other So Tight (they couldn't break us if they tried)

**Author's Note:**

> Day five!! I wont be posting on day seven since I combined the two prompts:)  
> A couple things to note in this one. I'm not entirely sure where or when it's set but I do know it's after Homecoming (for obvious reasons). The team lives together in the tower because Civil War was resolved peacefully. The purple grape with the sparkling doohicky glove never happened.  
> Also, (I'm sorry don't hate me) May is dead in this one. Don't have a backstory for how it happened it just did:((  
> Sorry, May, I larb you!

Tony and Peter were inseparable. They had been ever since Tony had adopted Peter after May's death. He had helped the grieving teen through the heartache and loss of the last true remaining member of his family. May was Peter's mother even if he had never called her that. It was what they both felt.

  
  


And then it was taken from him and he didn't know what to do. Peter thought he'd gotten used to losing the people that he loved but this was different, felt different, than the other times.

  
  


This was a loss with finality, a loss that truly broke Peter, and it broke Tony's heart to see his kid have to lose someone else. Tony stood by him though, he stayed and he loved Peter. He showed him that he hadn't lost everyone, hadn't lost all his family but had gained a new one. And that new one never replaced the one he lost, never ignored what the family Peter once knew had done for him. They only loved him and comforted him in his pain and loss.

  
  


Slowly his loss became bearable and the heartache eventually lessened. It was no less strong but, just like the other times, it became easier for Peter to go on with everyday. He started smiling more, laughing more. He put the Spider-Man suit back on and slowly became more of his old self.

  
  


And through it all Tony had stood by Peter's side. He had guided him, helped him, and became the father that the billionaire wished he could have had. 

  
  


They spent as much time as they could together, squeezing in lab days, movie nights, and any random thing they could think to do together. They were never apart when they had the chance to be in one another's company.

  
  


Those chances disappeared completely when Tony was called in for a mission with Steve, Nat, and Sam. The only four available at the time to be called to mission.

  
  


So they left, Tony promising Peter that he would be home in a few days, just in time for the younger hero's academic decathlon competition.

  
  


Peter waited those days for his dad to return, occasionally sharing messages to him through FRIDAY but otherwise not able to get in direct contact with him. Peter's senses flared two days after Tony left but he brushed it aside, thinking it was anxiety as it sometimes triggered his spider sense (especially when it was to do with Tony.)

  
  


The day for the team of four to arrive back home came and went with no sign of the quinjet that they left on. 

  
  


Rhodey and Pepper tried to reassure Peter that Tony was fine, that they were probably just held up a bit. Peter knew it wasn't true. He knew that was what they wanted to believe but he couldn't, his senses hadn't lied to him yet.

  
  


Tony wasn't home and Peter had no idea where he was.

  
  
  


\---

  
  
  


  1. _Pepper_



  
  


Pepper knew that Peter was anxious, that he was scared, but she didn't know what to do. As much as Tony joked that she knew everything, she  _ didn't.  _

  
  


She didn't know how to find Tony, she didn't know how to comfort Peter and tell him that Tony would be fine because she didn't know if he would. She'd been here before with Afghanistan. It wasn't the same but she couldn't help but immediately go back to that time. The stress and fear coming back too.

  
  


Pepper didn't know how to keep her worry and fear from Peter, how to help ease his own worry and fear.

  
  


She wasn't close with Peter like Tony was, she didn't have that same intense connection the two shared, but she loved him. Boy, did she love him. 

  
  


In the past years of getting to know Peter through Tony and then adopting him with said man after May's passing had allowed Pepper to grow to love him like her own.

  
  


She would never try to take Mary or May's place but she was so grateful to be given the chance to care for Peter. 

  
  


Which is why when Peter knocked on the door of her and Tony's room later that same night the team never arrived with fear in his eyes and his shoulders hunched, she let him in immediately. She didn't remind him he was always allowed in their room because she knew he didn't need that extra reassurance as he usually did.

  
  


What Peter needed was to be held, to be loved and sheltered. So Pepper did. She pulled Peter close to her and squeezed him in her embrace as he lay with his head on her shoulder. She whispered assurances of love, that she would never leave him and knew that Tony wouldn't either. Not if it was in either of their power.

  
  


Pepper cuddled with her son for the rest of night because that's what he was, her son. She hadn't raised him, hadn't watched him grow, but she loved him. She held him and protected him from his nightmares.

  
  


And she would do it until Tony was returned to them

  
  
  


\--- 

  
  
  


  1. _Ned, MJ, Harley_



  
  


Peter had been subdued ever since Tony, Sam, Steve, and Nat had dropped from satellite, communications, and missed their arrival date. He became quiet, withdrawn, he didn't even pass notes to Ned a single time during their biology class.

  
  


No one knew how to handle it and they couldn't fault him for the way he was feeling right now. Not for a second. Peter had lost every single true family member that he had and now one half of his adopted parents was missing.

  
  


Ned, Harley, and MJ had tried as many ways of trying to distract Peter and give him a bit of happiness but none of what they tried was really working. 

  
  


Until Peter came to school in a hoodie that he had obviously taken from Tony's closest if the MIT logo was anything to go by.

  
  


MJ sent Pepper a message in the fine art class that she had alone from the three loser boys she somehow claimed as friends. And yes, she had the number of the coolest women ever. 

  
  


MJ relayed the idea to Pepper, who immediately jumped at it and offered to get them the snacks and blankets they needed. She presumably disappeared to do that before MJ could say that it wasn't necessary even though it kinda was.  _ Obviously it's my friend who would have a bottomless pit for a stomach. _

  
  


And so Peter was greeted with the sight of blankets piled on one of the couches as he walked out of the penthouse elevator with Ned, Harley, and MJ close behind him.

  
  


When he saw the mountain of snacks and drinks on the coffee table, Peter stopped in his tracks, a confused frown on his face before he was being jerked forward by MJ and Harley's arms hooking over his elbows.

  
  


"C'mon, Loser. We're building a blanket for, watching whatever we can find on Netflix, and eating enough sweets and snacks that we pass out."

  
  


And if MJ said they were going to do something… well, they did it.

  
  


Peter felt a warmth building in his chest, spreading across his body from its center in his heart. He was still worried, terrified, but the fact that his friends took this time from their day to do something to make him happy was enough to make him want to cry.

  
  


Later, once their fort was built and they all lay cuddled together in it with the TV playing softly and their snacks mostly eaten, Peter sat up a bit from where he was propped against a pillow.

  
  


He looked at his friends for a moment and they all saw the clear gratitude in his eyes, even though it was shadowed by his worry for Tony and the others. 

  
  


"Thank you, guys. You didn't have to but… thank you."

  
  


"Always, darlin'." Harley murmured from the top of their blanket fort cuddle nest they had made inside of it.

  
  


Ned and MJ echoed him with their own affirmations.

  
  


A moment passed in silence before, almost as one, they all moved closer together, pulling blankets and pillows with them until they were all curled around Peter.

  
  


They stayed in their fort for the rest of the night as they watched movies and ate until they eventually did pass out in a pile together.

  
  
  


\---

  
  
  


  1. _Happy_



  
  


Happy was no stranger to the hyperactive, anxious ways in which both Peter and Tony thought, the way their minds would sometimes fix on a train of thought or topic and little would be able to distract them. Usually those ways tended to bring brilliance with them, a new high tech range for one of SI's many products from Tony or a new web formula or combination from Peter.

  
  


But there were also times where their minds instead chose to get stuck on the trails of darkness and anxiety that seeped through the two geniuses minds.

  
  


That time happened to be now. Why it had to be now, Happy knew was for a lot of reasons, but he wasn't entirely comfortable that it happened with him around. Yeah, he had really come to care for Peter since he got the chance to get to know him better, but the care had especially grown after the kid was adopted by Tony.

  
  


The problem was that his care didn't magically give him the emotional range and ability to really help Peter during a spiral like Tony, Pepper, or even the kid's friends could. 

  
  


But here he was, kneeling in front of Peter as the kid tried and failed to hold in his tears. "What if he doesn't come back? What if– what if I lose him like I lost May? I don't have anyone else!" Peter hiccuped out, losing the battle as hot tears streamed down his cheeks.

  
  


"Hey!" Happy said sternly but Peter could hear the slight hint of the stoic man's care and worry shine through. Happy gently grasped Peter's arms. "Tony will be okay. He will fight tooth and nail to get back to you, Kid. I know that for sure. And even if he isn't, and something  _ does  _ happen, you are not alone, you hear me?" He brushed a hand over his face and sighed. "Dammit, Peter. You know I'm not good at this. You have us all, okay? Pepper, Rhodey, me, your friends and the rest of the team. I know that we're not May or Tony but you have us and you always will."

  
  


Peter, whose tears had allowed slightly as Happy spoke, didn't trust himself to talk in case he started crying again. He just looked at Happy and nodded, hoping that the man would understand without him having to use words.

  
  


Happy understood.

  
  


_ Shit, I feel like I'm breaking out in hives. Ah, man. He's looking at me with those damn Bambi eyes. _

  
  


"Ah man. Okay, c'mere kid." Happy sighed and gently pulled Peter forward with the hands he still gently held the teen's arms with. Before he could even let himself regret it, Happy was smothered with an arm full of Spider Teen. He slightly awkwardly patted Peter's back and wrapped his arms around him.

  
  


It was weird as hell but Happy hoped he was doing it right. Whatever  _ it  _ was.

  
  


Clearing his throat and pulling away, Happy let his arm stay around Peter's shoulders. "We've got you, Peter. It'll all be okay. Tony will be home and then we can never tell him about this, yeah? He'll never let me live it down that I willingly hugged you."

  
  


Peter gave a slightly wet chuckle, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his MIT hoodie. "I'll keep it a secret for blackmail material."

  
  


_ There he is.  _ Happy thought as Peter cracked the joke. His sass and humour had vastly diminished and Happy had been starting to wonder if he would ever hear it enough to roll his eyes at again.

  
  


It was a relief to hear it even though there was still an underlying sadness and fear in Peter's very self.

  
  


_ Come back, Tony. Your kid needs you. _

  
  
  


\--- 

  
  
  


+1. Tony

  
  
  


Peter lay in his room on a Saturday night two weeks after Tony, Steve, and Nat were supposed to have returned.

  
  


He hated how he couldn't stop thinking about them, how his mind wouldn't rest and how it brought up endless scenarios of what could have gone wrong.

  
  


He hated how he always felt seconds away from crying, how he just wanted a hug from the one person that he could get one from.

  
  


Peter lay in his room on that Saturday night, not knowing how long he did until he finally was able to fall asleep.

  
  
  


\---

  
  
  


Peter woke up the next morning feeling as if he hadn't slept at all. He sat and had breakfast in silence, ignoring the concerned looks that Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey shot at him.

  
  


After he had helped clean up, he practically stumbled to the living room and curled up on one of the couches. The couch that he and Tony always shared.

  
  


_ No, stop thinking. _

  
  


Peter buried his face into the sleeves of the hoodie that he was burrowed into, trying to drown out his mind.

  
  


It didn't work. All it did was hurt more when he realised that he couldn't smell the scent of cologne and motor oil that once clung to the hoodie. He didn't even have that comfort to remind him of his dad anymore. Vaguely he thought of going to steal one from Tony and Pepper's room but he didn't have the energy.

  
  


Just like the night before, Peter lay on the couch, his mind pulling him in circles for he didn't know how long before he was able to escape in his sleep.

  
  
  


\---

  
  
  


Hands shaking him gently was the first thing that Peter felt as he started waking up. The next was a familiar, irregular heartbeat and the smell that was so missing from his hoodie, from the living quarters around him.

  
  


Cologne and motor oil.

  
  


Tony.

  
  


His dad.

  
  


Peter darted up from the couch, launching himself into Tony's arms as a sob ripped through his chest.

  
  


"It's okay, my love, I'm home. I'm here." Tony murmured, tears choking up his own voice as he hugged Peter as close to him as he could. Sobs and cries shook Peter's shoulders and it broke Tony's heart.

  
  


"Please don't leave me again!" Peter whimpered, hot tears trailing down his cheeks as he pressed his forehead into Tony's shoulder. "Please don't go!"

  
  


"I won't, Petey. Not without a fight. I'm not going anywhere if I can ever help it. You're my kid, my son, and I will always try to come home to you. No matter what." Tony said vehemently despite the tears still streaming down his own face.

  
  


They would have to talk later once Peter had calmed enough. Tony had to explain why he took so long to come home, to contact anyone, but that was for later.

  
  


Now, all he wanted was to hold his child. So he did. He held Peter, hugged him and cuddled him until both their tears had stopped falling and their hurt hearts started to warm.

  
  


"I'm here."

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Just a heads up, I'm going to be editing and reposting these a day or two after the og posting once my beta/s have had time to edit and check them over for me. There won't be massive changes I don't think but I just wanted to put it out there lol


End file.
